NintenDan's Twelth Article

Okay... so it was decided some time ago that this here ol' Article Writing business was getting inactive and overtaken by other prioties, so I thought it would be best to put everybody out of their misery from waiting cluelessly and just end the series here on. I know, the room you are in right now is probably half full of tears, but you must bear with me. I have a lot of other things that I'm working on, those being: school, and the DS Ultimate Two Year Anniversary which is surprisingly going to be easier due to me being prepared. But whatever will the topic be for the last ever article? Why, no topic fits better than a look into the future!

You say the word Nintendo 20 years ago, and you'd probably get a response like: "The Donkey People? Darn that games fun! Pity I haven't got any money to play it at the ol' arcade...". Say Nintendo 10 years ago and: "Ah, the NES, SNES, and the 64. What masterpieces, with games to match...". Say Nintendo 5 years ago and you'd either get: "The Gamecube they brought out is pretty cool, and the games are great! Melee, Sunshine, Luigi's Mansion; such new ideas, yet they seem so reminiscent of the old days..." or the worse "Playstation's better".

Say Nintendo now, and you'll get some mixed reactions. "Nintendo's great!" "The Wii is awesome!" or "The Wii is crap" "The graphics suck", you get the point. There are simply two sides: You either like Nintendo or you don't. I obviously like Nintendo. Why else would I have joined DS Ultimate? To talk about not Nintendo at ALL times? Yeah right.

But I have found one thing about Nintendo that's stayed the same throughout the very beginning, and I'm sure if you look at your pile of games you too will notice it: Nintendo creates games that virtually make all of your dreams come true. I know, sounds lame, but seriously think about it. Mario, for instance, is such a stretch on reality it's quite funny at times. Jumping on brown things, kicking turtle shells, saving the Princess, it's the sort of business you'd expect to see in your sleep while dreaming. But they've taken that and made it into a hit series. The same goes for many other famous series. The Legend of Zelda follows who was a young boy on his quest to save the princess of a kingdom from evil while using swords, shields and many other weapons to aid him along the way. Kirby, the pink blob who can copy his foes in order to save Dreamland from unwated baddies. Starfox, and how you and your team rush out to save planets from an evil scientist and rebel forces. Pokemon makes you an unknown figure whos dream is to rise up to the challenge, capture little animals who will soon become your closest friends that will help you on the path to victory. All of those storylines and more are fascinating, captivating and often quirky stories which I belive have made the company so successful.

Now take a look at the competitors. The games that they are famous for are, you guessed it, games that try to depict real life. This includes guns, racing and much more. Now, don't get me wrong, these games can be fun, but in my view point, what's the purpose playing a game that sticks to the rules? Why not have some mere mortal shooting off through the atmosphere breathing in space and defying many basic laws, such as having to breath to survive? I would much prefer the latter as a game.

What's better about Nintendo is one famous game. Super Smash Bros. No other company can do this. Why not? Because they just haven't made as many trademark characters or worlds, let alone music. Playstation has Crash Bandicoot and that's about it. That's probably the only mascot I can remember. A mascot has to be somebody that everyone in the world has heard of, such as Mario or Sonic. XBox tried to make one called Blinx the Cat or some crap, but he just had an epic fail.

Speaking of music, that also makes up Nintendo. I'd prefer humming the Kirby tune rather than "real" music any day, quite frankly. I think the singer ruins it, anyway. That's in most circumstances today. The classic music, I like. Today's "music" just ain't as catchy. Even as a type, the Melee theme is playing on my computer. It's that good.

But one main thing that is putting people off of the Wii is the graphics. I have to say to all the people who hate the Wii just from graphics, "Does anybody really care?". I'd pay money to be cel-shaded. Besides, the point of games is to take you into a world where everything is possible. Not a world where it looks exactly like outside. I quite like lollipop trees and flowers as big as your head.

The future of Nintendo, however? Assuming that they stay on track with such a brilliant line up of series WHILE releasing more Wii Sports or whatever for the other buyers of Nintendo if that's what they want to do, Nintendo should please both the Nintendo oldies and newbies. Only the people who have played the 2-D Mario genre on an old console will savour the sheer brilliance of Galaxy in my thoughts. Only the people who aren't afraid to imagine for once will enjoy Nintendo classics, old and new.

But most importantly, only the people who put creativity before looks will understand how Nintendo works when it comes to games.

And we come to an end. So I'll leave with the last ever piece of wisdom that will be given for a long time...

"As one Shy Guy once said, 'From the Guy to the Shy, this has been NintenDan'..."

'From the Guy to the Shy'

~NintenDan